I know ....
Superstring01 said:
But, of all the issues to identify about her, this one seems so. . . so. . . non-issue-ie.
In the context of the political arena—e.g., if she runs for office—this sort of behavior undermines her in multiple ways. It wrecks her folksy charm appeal, challenges her "egalitarian" appeal (anti-"elitism"), and reminds people that, no matter how hard her handlers might try, they just can't make her a genuinely intelligent person.
The thing is that if she
does run for office, her supporters don't care about this sort of thing, and when people refer to her past behavior, there will always be one allegedly informed, objective, "nonpartisan" who apparently has no fucking clue what people are talking about. Pick one: objective, informed, nonparitisan—there's a reason I use the word "allegedly". But when scrutinizing Palin for consistency as she makes her pitch, there will be plenty of people who think highly of themselves who either have no clue what's going on in the political world, or are just trolling the discussion in hopes of slowing down the criticism. It happens all the time in American politics. Haven't you ever watched the pundits on cable news and wondered how these people, who apparently work in relevant fields, are so goddamn ignorant? I mean, why can't
I be a paid expert? Or have a show on MSNBC? I have more of a clue about American politics than, say, Ed Schultz. And who is that guy that MSNBC hosts bring on for a Republican viewpoint from time to time? I can't remember his name. He's just this geeky, self-righteous dude with glasses who can't be bothered to be honest for two and a half seconds. Hell, compared to him? I could be an expert, too.
Compared to what's coming if Palin makes another bid for office, it's probably useful to have some sort of index on hand so one doesn't need to scour for references to episodes that are only obscure to the one allegedly objective, honest, informed nonpartisan in the world, who also happens to have no clue.
But at this point, there's no real emotional gratification to noting Palin's idiocy. Kind of like Bushisms, or Liz Cheney. After a while it's like, "Well, it's not like that was unexpected."
And it's one of the reasons people get so frustrated with one another. I could hardly care less about this, or the bit where they had to use canned laughter when Palin was on Leno the other night, but I
know that people are going to be expected to forget about her past if she runs for office again.
Or, as one of my
favorite bands puts it, "I know how all of this goes. The wine and the laughter flows. You put hand into the flame. You put hand into the flame, and watch it like a movie."
